Read the following excerpt taken from the US Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). The case coming on for a hearing before the Supreme Court, that court was of opinion that the law under
which the prosecution had was constitutional, and denied the relief prayed for by the petitioner. Ex parte
Plessy, 45 La. Ann. 80. Whereupon petitioner prayed for a writ of error from this court, which was allowed by
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana.
MR. JUSTICE BROWN, after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.
This case turns upon the constitutionality of an act of the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana, passed
in 1890, providing for separate railway carriages for the white and colored races. Acts 1890, No. 111, p. 152.
The first section of the statute enacts
"that all railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in this State shall provide equal but separate
accommodations for the white and colored races by providing two or more passenger coaches for each
passenger train, or by dividing the passenger coaches by a partition so as
to secure separate
accommodations: Provided, That this section shall not be construed to apply to street railroads. No person or
persons, shall be admitted to occupy seats in coaches other than the ones assigned to them
on account of
the race they belong to."
The Supreme Court's ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson was problematic because